The present invention broadly relates to gas engines and, more specifically, pertains to a new and improved construction of a gas engine equipped with a gas supply device.
Generally speaking, the gas engine of the present invention is equipped with a gas supply device comprising an intermediate housing at which there is mounted at least one pressurized gas container or reservoir accommodated in a sleeve and containing at least partially liquid gas. At the intermediate housing there is also mounted at least one gas engine. A gas superheater conduit structure is arranged within the extent of a gas supply conduit leading from the pressurized gas container to the gas engine.
In other words, the gas engine of the present invention is of the type having a gas supply device and comprising an intermediate housing, at least one sleeve mounted at the intermediate housing, at least one pressurized gas container for containing partially liquid gas and accommodated within the sleeve and mounted at the intermediate housing by means of the sleeve, at least one gas engine mounted at the intermediate housing, a gas supply conduit leading from the pressurized gas container to the gas engine and having a predetermined extent, and a gas superheater conduit structure or means arranged within the extent of the gas supply conduit.
A gas engine having a gas supply device of the initially mentioned type is known from the German Patent Publication No. 2,700,727, published July 21, 1977. In the arrangement disclosed in this publication, the pressurized gas container or reservoir is thermally separate from the gas engine and the gas superheater conduit and is surrounded by a latent heat-storage substance. This latent heat-storage substance must be heated sufficiently far above its own freezing or crystallization temperature before beginning operation. Otherwise the latent heat-storage substance is ineffective. The thermal conductivity of the latent heat-storage substance is very low, especially in the solid state. This substance can therefore only be applied in relatively thin layers, e.g. 0.5 mm. The heat extraction and heat absorption times must be designed sufficiently long, for instance for a matter of minutes. The gas superheater conduit thermally separated from the pressurized gas container and its surrounding latent heat-storage substance are heated either by a second heat-storage substance having a higher melting or crystallization temperature than the first or by a finned metallic component exposed to ambient air and having good thermal conduction properties.
In the first case, the heat-storage substance surrounding the gas superheater conduit must be brought to a higher temperature than the heat-storage substance surrounding the pressurized gas container. In practical operation this leads to several difficulties, especially when the ambient temperature lies in the region of the melting or crystallization temperature of the second heat-storage substance or below it. When the second heat-storage substance remains ineffective due to insufficient heating, the unsuperheated saturated gas can condense back to its liquid or solid state in the engine and cause mechanical damage.
In the second case, the temperature around the gas superheater conduit will attain at most the ambient temperature. At low ambient temperatures, the temperature of the gas superheater conduit can still be insufficiently greater than the temperature in the pressurized gas container determined by the heat-storage substance surrounding it, so that the gas can still condense back to its liquid or solid state in the engine and cause mechanical damage.
Furthermore, commercially available heat-storage substances have a relatively short service life since their latent heat-storage capacity diminishes after a few hundred state changes. This known gas engine and its associated gas supply device also comprise a multiplicity of components and are therefore relatively expensive and complicated.